Effects of Workplace Incivility on CustomerContact Employees’ Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention in Nigeria Hotel Industry

Customer incivility and supervisor incivility have remained serious issue where cases of uncivil behavior are increasingly burdensome to organizations. Such behaviors continue to accumulate costs in the hospitality industry and remain as the influencing factors for employees’ emotions and employees’ health. The Nigerian hotel industry as examined in this research is not an exemption to the cases of uncivil behavior, as it continues to be the order of the day in the hospitality industry. The study verified the effects of customer incivility (CUST) and supervisor incivility (SUPE) on the hotel customer-contact employees’ turnover intention (TOIN) and job satisfaction (JSAT) through the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion (EXXT). Using a non-probability judgmental sampling method, the study tested the model with 328 questionnaires from 4 and 5 star hotels across the cities of Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria. The study applied the IBM AMOS statistical software to conduct the analyses. The finding shows that customer incivility and supervisor incivility have positive effects on employee turnover intention and negative effects on JSAT. Furthermore, the EXXT served as a significant mediating variable in the relationship between customer incivility, supervisor incivility, and turnover intention. Surprisingly, there was no mediation through emotional exhaustion to customer and supervisor incivility and JSAT. The researcher suggests an effective managerial framework like employee and customer training to combat incivility and closes the gap in Nigerian hotel industry. The findings of this research are limited due to lack of willing personnel that are available to fill out the questionnaire. Keywords: Customer incivility; supervisor incivility; emotional exhaustion; turnover intention; job satisfaction; Nigeria; hotel industry.